The long-awaited NBA China Games returned for the first time in six years on Friday evening as the Phoenix Suns overcame an 18-point deficit to beat the Brooklyn Nets 132-127 after overtime in Macau.
Four more years remain on the multi-year deal between the NBA and Sands China in the casino hub – not to mention a second game between these two teams to come on Sunday – but the league’s chief said before tip-off that the pre-season event could make a comeback in mainland China, too, in the coming years.
“Yes, games can take place in other parts of China, concurrent with our Macau arrangement,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said at a media round table, hours after he hailed a “transformational partnership” with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
On the 13 previous occasions when NBA pre-season games were held in the country, Macau had co-hosted only once, in 2007. But NBA China chief executive Michael Ma did not rule out Hong Kong joining its neighbour as a potential destination for these games.
Macau’s Venetian Arena hosts the Brooklyn Nets’ clash with the Phoenix Suns on Friday. Photo: Karma Lo
“We’re looking at this part of the world, China, the Greater Bay Area, as an integral territory together to really spread around our mission to develop basketball in China,” he told the round table. “So right now, we’re focused on getting these two games here tonight and in two days from here, but in the future, we’re definitely looking at the Greater Bay Area.”
With NBA Europe, a pan-European league, expected to launch in October 2027, top NBA officials were open to the idea of an equivalent set-up coming to Asia when the time was right.